fair use of a thesis?

A questioned for the list members to consider this possible scenario:

A student writes a master thesis to complete a graduate degree program. The student puts a copyright notice on the bound thesis, a copy of which is placed in library stacks after graduation from the University. Several years pass, and one fine day the former student/author gets a newspaper clipping in the mail from a friend. The clip comes from a well known weekly newspaper with article that is based entirely on his or her thesis. The "author" of the story is a staff member of the newspaper who read thesis and summarized the contents for short feature story using direct quotes and entire passages from the original work. The newspaper gives attribution, but did not get permission or contact the original author. The publisher believes it is "fair use", the former student is a little upset because of the time and effort put into writing and creating the work and is.

Has the "original author" work been infringed? or is it fair use?

I would appreciate your thoughts.

Danny Shapiro

Danny Shapiro
Copyright Multimedia Manager
Oregon State University
100 Cascade Hall
Corvallis, OR 97330
541-737-8172 (v)
541-737-2488 (fax)
<http://osu.orst.edu/admin/printing/copyright/copyright.htm>
<danny.shapiro[_at_]orst.edu>
Received on Fri Aug 27 1999 - 17:08:18 GMT